


The Pigtail Test

by LadyBrooke



Series: The Test Series [1]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Genderswap, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-20
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 11:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/811017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caranthir should have known that Námo wouldn't let him leave the Halls without some form of punishment. He could not, however, have expected that leaving the Hall would involve being turned into a little girl and sent on a quest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pigtail Test

**Author's Note:**

> While nothing in this story requires you read another story for this one to make sense, this story was inspired by [The Test of the One True](http://gwenniel.deviantart.com/art/The-Test-of-the-One-True-303123364) by Gwenniel over on deviantArt. In addition, she's an excellent writer, so if you haven't already read her stories, you should. 
> 
> It has since spawned more stories by various people, including other ones I still have to finish. Troll!Mandos is horribly, horribly amusing to us.

Caranthir made his way into the room that Námo had called him to. He would finally be restored to his rightful body, as long as this wasn’t some trick the Vala had come up with.

“Lord Námo,” Caranthir spoke at just the right tone and bowed just the right amount, that Námo could ignore the mocking undertones if he chose to.

“Carnistir Morfinwe,” Námo was apparently willing to ignore them today, “Do you wish to be reembodied and reunite with those of your family that dwell in Valinor?”

“What do you think?” Caranthir’s time in Mandos had not lessened his fondness for smart aleck remarks.

Namo smiled. “I think that both you and I would be very happy to see you gone from my Halls. I have a body prepared for you.”

With that, Caranthir felt himself take physical form. However, it was not the physical form that he was used to. His body had shrunk to be much smaller, he was missing a rather important part of his anatomy, and his hair was currently pulled to the sides of his head and tied in pig tails. Horrified, he opened his mouth to speak.

“What did you do to me?” he cried, only to listen in shock to his own voice. It was much higher pitched than his normal voice was.

“I think this body suits you, Carnistir.” Caranthir just knew the Vala was laughing at him behind his calm facade.

“I don’t! What do I have to do to get my own body back?” He was this close to throwing something at Námo.

“Nothing too difficult, my dear elf.” Námo leaned back in his chair. “You merely have to agree to do something for me.”

“This is blackmail!” Caranthir yelled, ignoring his voice.

“No, it’s a quest. Your brother went on one for me as well. Now, all you have to do is venture to Tirion and give your brother a message for me.”

“Which brother?” Caranthir grumbled, unwilling to prolonge this humiliation any longer than he had to.

“Matimo. I wish you to tell him that I hope his…friendship…with Fingon has not been ill affected by his quest. And no, I won’t tell you what he had to.” Námo was the most annoying being on this planet, short of Manwë, Caranthir thought. Well, and Finarfin. And Turgon. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t the most annoying, but at this current moment, he was definitely up there.

“Fine. May I leave now?” Caranthir grumbled, turning around.

“Of course.” Námo smirked, as he watched Caranthir leave the room.

~

As he made his way around the city, Caranthir was sulking. Aside from the fact that the only clothes he had were pink with polka dots and lace (and if he ever found out who made this dress, he was going to kill them), he was not used to this body. Already, he had fallen down the stairs leading out of the Halls, rolled down a hill, and almost fallen into a creek. It had not been a good day, and he was ready to find his brother and get back into his own body.

However, as always seemed to happen in his life, things were about to get much worse.

“Hey, little girl! Little girl, are you okay?” he felt a hand grab his arm. Looking up, he saw that it was the last people he wanted to run into today.

“Let go of me! How dare you touch me, you ingrate!” Caranthir ripped his arm away.

“Hey!” Aegnor yelled, “My brother was just trying to help you, there’s no reason to get nasty.” Caranthir jumped backwards as Angrod tried to grab him again.

“Come on kid, you look hurt. We’ll take you to the palace with us, and our Atar will know what to –“ Angrod had no chance to finish the sentence, as Caranthir kicked him in the mouth.

“You little!” Angrod swore at him, as he clutched his jaw. Caranthir once again dodged backwards as Aegnor, this time, tried to grab him. Suddenly, there was another voice interrupting.

“What are you two doing? The entire street can hear your nonsense; it wouldn’t surprise me if Maedhros heard it all the way down at the other end. And, what do you think you’re doing grabbing small children off the street? That’s the kind of thing that gets us all in trouble with the Valar, again. No, Angrod, keep your mouth shut, you’re going to do more damage trying to explain yourself than if you just keep it closed.” Caranthir took the opportunity given by Orodreth’s appearance to slip away down the street, all the while listening to Orodreth lecture Angrod and Aegnor. That almost made up for the humiliation of being seen by them, since he doubted either of them was smart enough to connect this body to him. And now, he had a general location for where his brother lived.

~

An hour later, he had located his brother’s house. Finally, his nightmare was almost over. As he didn’t wish to be seen by anyone that happened to be standing around, he ignored the front door in favor of a different way of entering. One popped window later, Caranthir climbed up the side of the house, and managed to get his too short body high enough to wiggle through the window into the kitchen.

He sneaked through the crack in the door, looking for his brother. He had not come all this way, only to be seen by somebody other than Maedhros who would recognize him.

Finally, he located Maedhros’ bedroom. As he went to shove the door open, he accidentally knocked over a vase which crashed into the floor. He heard several noises from his brother’s bedroom, before the door was thrown open. He watched as his brother looked all over the place, before he looked down.

“Hello, brother,” Caranthir smirked at the look on his brother’s face.

Maedhros stared at him for several long moments. “Car-Caranthir?” he finally croaked out. “You look like a little girl.”

Caranthir began to answer, but stopped as he heard laughter. “Your bathroom just laughed at me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Maedhros stated. “My bathroom is entirely incapable of laughing.”

Looking closer at his brother, Caranthir spotted a blush beginning to form on his cheeks. “Fine, the bathroom did not laugh at me.” He watched his brother begin to relax, before he spoke again. “Whoever you have hiding in there laughed at me.”

Before Maedhros could stop him, Caranthir darted across the room and pulled the door open. Fingon fell over onto the floor.

Caranthir was slightly amused by the deer like stare his brother had acquired. “Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s a perfect valid reason that Fingon was hiding in your bathroom, like the fact that you both don’t fit in the closet anymore. However, as I’d like to be back to my rightful body sometime soon, can we move on?”

Maedhros nodded, as Fingon broke into giggles once more at the sight of Caranthir in his dress. He pondered the possibility of breaking Fingon’s jaw, before deciding it wasn’t worth the yelling that Maedhros would doubtlessly inflict upon him.

“Namo wishes me to tell you that he hopes his quest for you has not harmed your friendship with Fingon,” as Caranthir finished saying his sentence, he felt his body restore itself to its rightful size.

~

Walking out of his brother’s house later that night, after he had threatened both Fingon and Maedhros to keep quiet about the details of his return, Caranthir was happy – though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone – to be returned to life in Valinor. Though, he had no idea who Námo would subject to this kind of test next, as he couldn’t imagine Celegorm or Curufin (or Eru forbid, his father) in any female form.

Caranthir quit his ponderings as he came closer to Finarfin’s house, in favor of breaking down in laughter. As he looked at Angrod’s swollen jaw, he decided that it was very good to be back.


End file.
